PREVIEW: Luxola x Alcina Launch in Singapore

MEDIA INVITE

Hey ladies!

Singapore-based online beauty store Luxola is no stranger to many beauty fanatics here. Since it first started in 2011, it has brought countless popular and niche beauty brands from all over the world to the Singapore e-market. Some examples are Sigma Beauty (I was eyeing on their brushes for the longest time), Real Techniques, Sleek MakeUP, Wet n Wild and 3CE which, as far as I know, are not available in any brick and mortar stores. This, no doubt, saves us shoppers a lot of shipping and agent fees because with Luxola, we don’t really need to purchase products by the aforementioned brands overseas anymore! 🙂 (Hmm.. perhaps they should consider bringing Lorac over as well?)

A few days ago, I received an invitation to attend a beauty cafe (or simply put, a pre-launch event with lotsa awesome food) for Luxola’s latest brand partner Alcina. Alcina is a makeup and skincare brand from Bielefeld, Germany. It was established around mid 20th century (If I’m not wrong it was somewhere in the 1970s) aimed to provide skin care for all ages. Prior to its existence here, this brand was pretty much targeted at some parts of Europe, having garnered a huge following in Germany and Russia especially. The launch here marks Alcina’s first step to going global and Singapore is in fact the very first Asian country chosen to stock the brand. *honoured* The products will go live on luxola.com on 11 May 2015.

(Please allow me to interrupt this post with some mouth-watering pictures of the irresistible hors d’oeuvres I had at Club Street Social where the event was held. Sorry, just couldn’t resist!)

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The fruit carving on the right is madness!

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At the event, we had makeup artist Frouka from Germany demonstrate how she did her makeup with Alcina products and I also had the opportunity to test out and swatch some of them.

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Here’s a sneak peek at some Alcina products that will be debuting on Luxola later, beginning with the products from their skincare range. Descriptions are lifted from Alcina.com.

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The premium cleansing foam of the Alcina Cleansing Mousse Nº1 stands for ultimate indulgence and with its mild tenside system and moisturising complexes it ensures deep-down, thorough facial cleansing which is nevertheless gentle. The foamy, creamy cleansing mousse also nourishes your facial skin as part of your daily cleansing ritual.

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Cleansing Mousse N°1 – Premium foam for gentle yet thorough cleansing

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Hyaluron Gel 2.0 for a firmer complexion. This helps to fill out small wrinkles by giving the skin moisture for combating fine lines, leaving the skin looking significantly more vital and smooth.

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Nourishing Capsules with natural ceramides, vitamins A and E and jojoba oil help the skin to store oil and moisture more effectively. They strengthen the skin’s barrier for silky smooth skin straightaway. The light, oily concentrate of these energy-rich capsules leaves damaged skin feeling wonderfully smooth without a greasy sheen.

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Nourishing Capsules provide facial care for a silky smooth skin sensation. To use this, simply twist or cut off the neck of the capsule and press out the oil and apply on cleansed facial skin.

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Facial Cream N°1 is a moisturising cream which provides intensive care to dry facial skin, relieves any uncomfortable sense of tautness and restores the skin’s elasticity and fresh look. Thanks to the carefully combined ingredients in Facial Cream N°1, including urea and the essential amino acid arginine, the skin is nourished and provided with long-lasting moisture. For beautiful-looking, pampered and relaxed skin – 24 hours a day.

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Eye Cream N°1 provides optimal protection for the skin against harmful environmental factors and ensures beautifully bright eyes. This eye cream increases the skin’s moisture content and reduces fine lines and small wrinkles around the eyes. If used regularly, Alcina Eye Cream N°1 helps to prevent the formation of wrinkles and skin aging caused by light.

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Eye Cream N°1 has a tip for easy application. Use this to increase the skin’s moisture content.

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The Alcina Eye and Lip Cream boasts a dual function: it makes the skin around the eyes smoother and also ensures beautiful lips. The linoleic acid in this cream moisturises the extremely dry eye and lip areas. The rich cream can reduce new wrinkles around the eyes and gently soothe lip wrinkles, both caused by dryness, and make stressed lips soft and smooth again.

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Lip and Eye Cream

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The Alcina Day & Night Facial Fluid with allantoin, liquorice and bisabolol balances out excess sebum production on the face and stabilises moisture levels. If used regularly the Alcina Day & Night Facial Fluid ensures a matt and balanced complexion.

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The Alcina Herbal Mask helps to clear impure skin. The combination of the active ingredients kaolin, sage and lavender oil ensures that excess sebum is absorbed and that the facial pores are visibly reduced.

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Herbal Mask: The colour does look very “herbal” to me!

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SOS Stick has an antibacterial effect which dries out spots and impurities more quickly. It’s so small and portable, great for combating pimples before you go for an event!

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SOS Stick comes with a roller ball. I’m planning to get this when it goes live later!

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AHA Facial Fluid 10% nourishes and smoothes stressed skin and is particularly ideal for mature skin subject to natural or light-induced skin aging.

Let me just say that most of the skincare products above smell REALLY good. But fret not, these products are fragrance-free and non-toxic so it’s perfectly safe to apply on your skin.

Moving on to their makeup products. Alcina specialises in skincare products but they believe that makeup can be used to enhance and develop one’s own style of beauty. Thus, that propelled them to launch a makeup line as well!

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Alcina Perfect Cover Make-up offers long-lasting coverage to give your skin a flawless look and semi-matt finish. The soft texture gives it an ultralight and comfortable feel when applied. It provides full coverage for pigmented spots, redness, impurities or an uneven complexion to achieve a perfect finish.

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Alcina Perfect Cover Make-up Swatch! These are the 3 chosen shades (there’s also a Dark shade but it’s not available on Luxola) for the Singapore consumers.

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Silky Matt Make-up leaves your skin feeling silky-smooth. The skin’s pores appear smaller and a powdery light, matt finish is achieved all day long thanks to the light and equalising coverage. Also comes in Medium shade (not in picture).

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Cover Coat Concealer hides shadows under the eyes to give a wide-awake and fresh appearance. The pleasant texture makes minor skin imperfections, pores and lines less visible thanks to its seamless coverage which can be increased as necessary.

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Cover Coat Concealer only comes in light and medium shades.

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Cover Coat Concealer swatch

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Matt Sensation Powder is an innovative wet & dry powder which gives your skin a matt and naturally beautiful complexion which lasts all day long. The novel powder technology leaves the skin feeling wonderfully soft and also fixes your make-up perfectly in place. Apply using a moist sponge, can also be used as a powder. Perfect for minor make-up corrections. Only available in Light and Medium.

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Matt Sensation Powder swatch (hope it’s visible on your end!)

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Sun Kiss Powder gives your skin a summer glow. Light-reflecting shimmering pigments make your skin look fresher, smoother and altogether flawless. As if kissed by the sun. In layman’s term, this is a bronzer. Hehe.

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Sun Kiss Powder swatch! Three different shades in one 🙂 How value-for-money.

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The standard packaging for most of the make-up (powder) products.

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Brilliant Blush adds gentle contours to your face and gives you a fresher-looking complexion straightaway. The multi-shade powder impresses thanks to optimal shade brilliance and creates vivid highlights, from delicate through to intensive. Advanced micropigments guarantee a radiant finish. Comes in two shades.

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Brilliant Blush in Triple Rose 010

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Brilliant Blush in Triple Peach 020

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Perfect Eyebrow Powder intensifies the colour of your eyebrows and makes them appear thicker. The quick and easy way to the perfect eyebrow shape for a finish ranging from natural to striking. Great hold and can be simply and professionally applied using the oblique brush. Comes in Lightbrown and Greybrown.

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Perfect Eyebrow Powder swatch

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Wanna make a guess what these are?

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Pretty eye shadow! The bronze (foreground) is so captivating *_*

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Miracle Eye Shadow adds fascinating colour brilliance to your eyelids for a sensational colour result. This smooth and luxurious eye shadow with its innovative texture is particularly rich in colour pigments and guarantees a perfect hold. It can be used both wet and dry for an individual look – from subtle to expressive. It combines the very best of baked, powder and cream eye shadows. Comes in 6 amazing shades!

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Miracle Eye Shadow swatch. Missing Mocca 070 here.

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Wonder Volume Mascara gives your eyelashes maximum volume, a thicker eyelash base and stunning length. The exceptional microbrush coats and shapes every single lash. For seductive and voluminous eyelashes.

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(My favourite part of the event) Luxola launches two types of Alcina lipsticksShiny and Intense. This picture does not (obviously) show the full collection.

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There will be 8 Intense Lipsticks and 7 Shiny Lipsticks. Intense lipsticks leaves an intensely rich and perfectly opaque colour while Shiny gives a seductive shine.

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What were available at the talk! Scarlet is the only Shiny lipstick here.

The lipsticks (both types) don’t really provide full, opaque coverage as you can see from the swatch above.

In general, the products felt amazing and high-end. Most importantly, the prices would be relatively affordable.

I didn’t get to really try most of these products so I can’t do a proper review for each of them (that’d be crazy I know but yes, I love pushing boundaries!). But I got to take home some of the products featured above 🙂 Shall do a quick review on those that I’ve used.

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Shiny Lipstick in Scarlet 010

I love the lipstick! It has a very nice sheen (though I don’t really find it seductive haha) and it feels really emollient! It gives off a nice stain effect and glides on really smoothly on my lips. It’s slightly sheer and not really pigmented so you’d need to apply multiple times for the colour to really show.

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I like how the Sun Kiss Powder has three different shades in it! They blend to form a really nice gradual tan.

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Sun Kiss Powder comes with a brush!

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With Sun Kiss Powder and Shiny Lipstick in Scarlet on

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Lips close-up

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Contoured my face with Sun Kiss Powder. Turns out great!

And that’s all from me! How do you find the products? Do you use Alcina if it’s available in your country? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below 🙂

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Thanks for having me Luxola!

And thanks for reading! 🙂 Stay tuned for more posts coming up!

Alcina will be launched on Luxola.com on 11 May 2015.

Mom’s Birthday @ Crab Party

Hey everyone! Hope your week has been great so far 😉

My Mom celebrated her birthday last week and being the eldest child, I had the responsibility of deciding where to take her on her special day. With so many restaurants to choose from, deciding where to eat can be a real headache. After narrowing down my choices, I finally decided on Crab Party which has been my go-to restaurant to satisfy my crab craving (mega love the Butter Cream Crab there!) ever since I was introduced to it six years ago.

It wasn’t my Mom’s first time at Crab Party, having brought my parents to dine there once in 2012 on Father’s Day. They too loved the food and were full of praise for the crab dishes. But prices are pretty steep and the place can be quite inconvenient if you don’t drive.

It is also noteworthy that the crabs sell out very quickly so it’s important that you ask to reserve your preferred number and size of the crab when you call to book a table.

The following is what we ordered!

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Salted Egg Chicken (S$12+)

We were tossing up between ordering Butter Cream Crab and Salted Egg Crab but I was dying to have the taste of the butter cream I missed to much linger on my tongue once again. So we got the best of both worlds! The chicken came in bite-size pieces (like KFC’s Popcorn Chicken) coated with savoury salted egg seasoning. Every bite was sensational!

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Kailan with Beef (S$15+)

We had some greens to balance out the guilt! The beef was glistening in the restaurant ceiling light, making the entire dish look so appetising and enticing. The beef was great and had a consistent chewy texture. But I enjoyed the greens more because they were really fresh and crunchy!

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Black Sauce Big Prawn (S$25+)

This was ordered by my Mom who is a huge prawn lover. I wasn’t particularly pleased with the size of the prawns because they were nowhere near “big”. Worst of all, the flesh was rather mushy – a sign that the prawns were not fresh. Overall, this dish was a disappointment.

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Mantou (S$1+ each)

Boyfriend and I went sans rice that day to allow more stomach space for the hot and crispy Mantou (steamed buns) which we would dip into the chilli gravy and butter cream sauce below.

Crabs were chargeable at S$65/kg which is pretty much on the high side. To have a peace of mind, we usually ask for our crabs to be weighed before we place our orders. We certainly don’t wish to get a rude shock when we receive our bill at end of the meal.

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Favourite Chilli Crab (medium, 1.6kg, S$104+)

Chilli Crab is the restaurant’s signature dish and of course, my folks’ favourite style of cooking crabs. The gravy was sweet and spicy enough for me but definitely not for my parents whose tolerance for spicy food is sky-high.

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Butter Cream Crab (medium, 1.6kg, S$104+)

We ordered another crab because boyfriend and I aren’t really into chilli. And most importantly, we didn’t want to compete with our elders for the crab pincers *chuckles* Our pincers were all very meaty because both crab were medium-sized, which made our meal even more gratifying.

The Butter Cream gravy was divine as usual. Sweet, thick and smooth, the gravy propels you to heaven with a single taste. It’s one of the best Butter Cream Crab I’ve had and I’m so glad standards remain unchanged throughout the years. I feel that it tastes even better with Mantou 🙂

Okay hope you guys like this short update! I have more posts coming up so please bear with me 😉

Thanks for reading!

A Tribute to Mum @ Café Brio’s (Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel)

Hey everyone!

It’s the start of a brand new month again and we are fast approaching midyear 2015! But like the month of December, May is another month of endless spending for me. Not only is Mother’s Day around the corner, my Mom’s birthday happens to be in May too. And because my Mom enjoys being pampered, I usually don’t hold joint celebrations although both days are just a week apart.

Coincidentally, my boyfriend’s mother was also born in May – more than one year and a day before my Mom. Thus it makes remembering her birthday a cinch because she would celebrate hers on the following day of my Mom’s. However, due to our conflicting schedules, very seldom we would celebrate her birthday on the actual day. It’s often done in advance so as to avoid the Mother’s Day crowd and surcharges (and also because being Chinese, you know, belated celebrations are usually frowned upon). This year we had it at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel because of a two-week long Mother’s Day buffet promotion going on at Café Brio’s.

For just S$48++ per person, you get to treat your beloved Mom to a pre-Mother’s Day hi-tea cum local barbeque buffet on 2 May and 9 May (basically, the two Saturdays prior to Mother’s Day), or a Mother’s Day lunch or dinner cum seafood barbeque buffet for S$68++ and S$78++ per person respectively on 3 May and 10 May.

Café Brio’s A Tribute to Mum

Thank Mum for her dedication to the family with a gratuitous buffet spread, featuring Osaka crab salad with Champagne gelee, jumbo king prawn with asparagus spear and mild spicy tomato cream sauce and seafood on ice. She’ll love the beef steak, slipper lobster, scallop on half shell, salmon fillet and stingray at the barbecue station. Sweeten her taste-buds with lovely peach melba roulade and mini chocolate glazed cupcakes.

All Mums will be presented with a heart-shaped cookie.

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Here are some highlights of the hi-tea buffet last Saturday 🙂

Pastries and Desserts

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Mother’s Cup Cake Tower

I was instantly drawn to the colourful display of the cake tower upon entering the buffet. They’re so adorable, don’t you think? But for the longest time, these red velvet cupcakes were left untouched, probably no one wanted to ruin their nice arrangement. It was interrupted by me in the end, haha. The cupcake was moist and sweet. Would help myself to more servings if not for being weight-conscious.

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Chocolate Brownie

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Nonya Kueh

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“Lovely” Peach Melba Roulade

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Chocolate Cream

Topped with golden chocolate pearls, these chocolate mousse were so alluring, I couldn’t resist taking one for myself. I only ate half of it (it was so hard stopping myself) because the thickness of the chocolate made me feel so sinful, oh my God. It was good nonetheless!

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Durian Swiss Roll

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Ice Cream – Mango, Vanilla, Strawberry and Chocolate flavours

They were surprisingly soft as the scoop glided through the ice cream with ease. There are also waffle cones for you to scoop the ice cream onto them. I took 2 scoops – mango and vanilla 🙂

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Chocolate fondue

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Not sure what this is but I think it’s a kind of Nonya kueh

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Mini Nine Layer Kueh 九层糕

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Mini Egg Tarts

The egg tarts were a little tasteless in my opinion, and it would be better if the crusts were a little crispier and more flaky. It was a shame because I really love egg tarts and was looking forward to devouring most of them. But I really like how shiny the egg custard looked 🙂

Japanese Cuisine

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An array of sushi

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Sushi again

I kinda shunned this section because it’s rice overload. I wished there were Sashimi! But most of the sushi were gone by the second hour of the buffet so I guess they are decent.

Local Delights

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Wok-Fried Vegetables

Don’t judge me – this is one of my favourite dishes that afternoon, so much so that I actually went back to the buffet table thrice for it. I’m really not much of a greens person but the bok choy was really delicious and soft.

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Glutinous Rice

I took a small spoonful of the rice and was actually yearning for more. It was really nice and well executed 🙂

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Stir-fried Tiger Prawns

Probably the most popular dish on the buffet table, the tiger prawns were gone in a flash shortly after we took our food, thanks to the convenience of shelled prawns. Seriously, I doubt they would be so sought after if they had their shells intact. They were scrumptious, fresh and slightly bigger than normal prawns though (which is a bonus for buffets). But replenishment was kinda slow so we actually had to wait a bit before we could go for a second serving.

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Wok-fried Singapore Chilli Clams

The clams were generously huge and meaty for a buffet. Not to mention, they were pretty fresh too. The chilli gravy was divine. If you’re a fan of chilli crab, you would like this as much.

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Mantou

I suppose the steamed buns were meant to be dipped into the gravy of the chilli clams above. But they were a little too tough for my liking.

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Fried fish

Dim Sum

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There were mini Bao and Siew Mai (not in photo)

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Fried crab meat sticks

You know that the buffet is extremely kids-friendly when they have a section dedicated to simple fried food like the above. Apart from crab meat sticks, there were also fried tapioca. Fried crab meat sticks are also my personal favourite which I often snacked on during my secondary school days so I was really excited to see them at the buffet.

Sandwiches

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Focaccia Bread filled with Tuna Mayo and Green Salad

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Mini Soft Bun with Chicken Floss… and some tortilla chips?

The mini soft buns tasted like BreadTalk’s Flosss lah with the sweet cream and generous layer of floss, just that instead of pork floss, it’s chicken. The bun itself was soft. Not bad! But I wouldn’t binge on bread at a buffet.

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Mini Croissant with Turkey Ham and Cherry Tomato

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Apricot and Rum

Salad

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Beetroot salad

I attempted to cleanse my bowels with some beetroot salad. Was apprehensive at first because I had only tried beetroot in juice form but this was surprisingly good and fun to eat.

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Fussili Pasta with Semi-Dried Tomatoes

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Glass Noodle Salad with Top Shell

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Garden salad

Barbecue

The barbecue corner can be found outdoors (near the section where the dim sum is) which isn’t very conspicuous if you’re not attentive enough.

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All kinds of freshly barbecued Satay

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Barbecued sausages

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Barbecued sausages

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Barbecued wings

Asian Desserts

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DIY Ice Kacang

It was a messy affair making my own Ice Kacang because I suck at using the shaved ice machine, but it was tons of fun! It was even more satisfying being able to decide how much of the syrup you want to drizzle over the mountain of ice (though mine was pretty much a hill.. or perhaps, a pile of gravel) because I totally went crazy with them. My creation was so sweet it could give me diabetes.

There was also a corner that served Laksa (prepared by a chef) and had several pots of western soup. I tried Creme of Mushroom but it was a tad tasteless (still decent and worth a try on the overall) so be sure to look out for those when you’re at the buffet!

Last but not least, if you’re going with your Mom, she will be given a heart-shaped cookie as mentioned in the blurb above!

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Aiya, a bit broken liao.

There will still be another (last) session of Hi-Tea cum Local Barbecue Buffet this coming Saturday before the café reverts to their normal menu so be sure to make a reservation for that one. After all, it’s only S$48++ for a wide spread of food (even though it’s only hi-tea). It’s a steal if you ask me. And I’m sure your Mom would have a whale of a time there too!

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Café Brio’s @ Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel (beside Zouk)
392 Havelock Road
Singapore 169663
For reservations, call 6233 1100 or email dining.gcw@millenniumhotels.com
Website: A Tribute to Mum at Café Brio’s